Course Information

Description

This course explores the artistic aspects, scientific foundations, and techniques of digital photography with the goals of enabling students to expand their knowledge of photography as an art form, to develop a deeper and broader understanding of the scientific basis of photography, to improve their photographic technique, and to effectively use photographic software tools.
Although the primary focus is on digital photography, many concepts apply to other photographic disciplines including film and video.
Topics include quality of light, exposure control, depth of field, aesthetics, composition and patterns, perspective, color science, the human visual system, spatial and color perception, exposure, metering, digital sensors, optics, analogies to biological systems, color filter arrays, file formats, sensor linearity, color spaces and profiles, optical and computational image artifacts, and software tools and techniques for modification and enhancement.
Through lectures, hands-on assignments, and critiques, students expand their understanding of digital photography while exploring their creativity to broaden the possibilities and improve the quality of their photographs.
Upon successful completion of the course, students can expect to take photographs with an intuition of the camera's behavior, and its limitations, and an ability to think critically about light and the resulting appearance of a photograph.

Students should have access to a camera with a manual mode and an option for RAW for the duration of the course.

Accessibility

The Extension School is committed to providing an accessible academic
community. The Disability Services Office offers a variety of
accommodations and services to students with documented disabilities.
Please visit
Disability Services for more information.

Academic Integrity

You are responsible for understanding
Harvard
Extension School policies on academic integrity and how to use
sources responsibly. Not knowing the rules, misunderstanding the rules,
running out of time, submitting "the wrong draft", or being
overwhelmed with multiple demands are not acceptable excuses. There are
no excuses for failure to uphold academic integrity. To support your
learning about academic citation rules, please visit the
Harvard
Extension School Tips to Avoid Plagiarism, where you'll find links
to the Harvard Guide to Using Sources and two, free, online 15-minute
tutorials to test your knowledge of academic citation policy.
The tutorials are anonymous open-learning tools.

Grading Criteria (with approximate weightings)

Here is the percentage break-down of what will be covered in this
course. More details will be posted as the class gets underway.
As always, we may make adjustments to this scale if necessary.

Sections

We offer both in-person sections for local students and online
sections for those at a distance.

Online

Wednesdays at 8:30 PM ET, led by Shelley on Skype. Add us
with username "expodigiphoto" and
be online at the setion time to participate!

Saturdays at 1:00 PM ET, led by Henry on Adobe
Connect. Using the Adobe Connect software is
preferred, but you could also call in to participate in
section by dialing 866-675-1560 and, when prompted, enter
the Student Code of 6929852094.

In-person

We offer two in-person sections for local or hybrid distance
students.

Wednesdays at 5:30 PM ET, led by Rob. Sever Hall 212.

Thursdays at 7:40 PM ET, led by Jordan. Northwest B101.
This section immediately follows lecture in the same
room.

Recordings

Henry plans to record his Saturday section on Adobe Connect
and make the recording available to those that have a conflict
and cannot attend. Recordings are listed below. Note that, due to
the layout of the Adobe Connect software, you might sometimes
need to click the maximize button (which looks like this:
) to ensure
that you can see the software below the video.

Projects

Four projects and a final project based on creating photographs will
be assigned. Each project is due by 11:59 PM on the Thursday
listed and, unless otherwise noted, each will be released two lectures
prior to its due date.

Final Project

A larger final project will be due at the end of the semester in
addition to the four projects above. The project requires a proposal
to be submitted after the specifications are released, and you should
be sure to get approval on your proposal before working on the project.
The final project will not be accepted if a proposal for it is not
approved.

Though every assignment is normally due at 11:59 PM on its due
date, the final project itself is due at 12:00 PM (noon)!

Note: all listed dates subject to change.

Submission

Submission of all projects should be done via the course's
submission tool, unless otherwise noted.

Problem Sets

Five problem sets comprising theory-based questions will be assigned
during the semester. Each problem set is due at 11:59 PM on the
Thursday listed and, unless otherwise noted, each will be released two
lectures prior to its due date.

Submission

Submission of all problem sets should be done via the course's
submission tool, unless otherwise noted.

Critiques

This course includes in-class critiques.
These critiques offer opportunity to showcase ongoing work
and receive constructive feedback while exchanging ideas
and foster conversation among everyone in the course.
The critique participation portion of the grade primarily involves two
components: submitting photos for critique and critiquing others'
submissions.

Submission

The first critique photo is due by 11:59PM on September 17 and new
photos will be due at the same time every Thursday after until December 3.
That is a total of 12 critique images; in the event that a week has
no lecture, a critique image is still due.
You may skip one week without any grade penalty.
Please submit to the Course
Blog (You will gain access to the blog upon successful completion
of Problem Set 1).

Please also plan to display a small number of your critique photos in
section or lecture. We will have limited time during lecture, so please
be sure you volunteer early to secure a spot!
Although sections are optional, you will need to display your work in
either section or lecture at least once in the course of the semester
to receive full participation points.
The goal of this is to allow you the opportunity to receive feedback
outside of the limitations of text on a blog. In other words, you will
get to hear the feedback and all of its nuances!
Beginning September 17, we will begin to solicit volunteers to
demonstrate their work to the class.
If you cannot watch the live lecture stream or participate in any
section due to timezone (or other) issues, we'll ask you to send us a
brief 30-60 second video (recorded by webcam or digital camera)
to introduce the photograph that we will display and then discuss.

In all cases (both during class and on the blog), the staff will
offer several pieces of work for critique to demonstrate the process
and also lay the foundation for discussion.

Feedback and Discussion

The course blog contains the ability to comment on posts. Please use
this to provide meaningful, constructive, and useful feedback to your
peers! It is always nice to hear that someone else enjoys an image,
but it is much more helpful to understand why that image is enjoyable.
Use the opportunity to explore and discuss the meaning, symbolism,
artistic merits, technical achievements, and uniqueness of someone's
photograph. It is just as useful to hear what aspects of the photograph
need work, but please do so in a constructive and supportive way.

The staff will also be participating and moderating the discussion.
However, if you come across offensive, inappropriate, or disparaging
remarks before we do, please flag it so we are sure to review it.
Repeat infringements will result in the loss of all participation
points for the offender and exclusion from the blog and its discussion.

Ultimately, we want this to be a location where everyone with all
experience and comfort levels feel supported. We hope you'll find
it a comfortable enough space to place work-in-progress photos and
receive useful feedback on your efforts. To that end, the staff
will begin by posting some work of our own to seed the discussion.

We understand that sometimes you may not have anything to add to an
ongoing conversation, so this portion of the grade is less rigid.
Please plan to contribute to at least 2 discussions every week, but you
will not be penalized for skipping a week or two or having a couple of
weeks of slow participation followed by a few weeks of heavy participation.
Use your judgement and don't wait to participate until the end of the semester.
We may also use a form of peer review at the end of the term to determine
participation. In other words, we might ask each of you whom among your
peers contributed most to your work.

Frequently Asked Questions

I'm new to photography. Is this class for me?

Yes!
This course attracts students with a wide range of experience
and expertise in photography.
No matter your prior experience you will be surrounded by others with
the same comfort level.

I'm very serious about photography. Is this class for me?

Probably, yes!
The first few weeks of the class are devoted to the fundamental
photographic exposure concepts.
If you are a film photographer but haven't yet moved into the realm of
digital, this will ease the transition.
If you are an existing digital photographer, this will be review at
worst but, more likely, might fill some gaps or clear up some
misconceptions.
In either case, we quickly move into topics specific to digital
photography and the elements required to understand the technology,
terminology, and processes behind the art and the science.

What kind of camera should I buy?

We do not require you to purchase a camera for this class.
However, we recognize that some students enter this course with the
intention of improving their photography and were therefore planning on
purchasing a camera anyway.
Of course, given the wide range of cameras available, it is difficult
to recommend any single particular camera that might fit everyone's
needs!

For this class, you will need access to a camera with full
manual control and the capability to store images in a
RAW file format.
If you are local, there are some cameras that meet these requirements
available for loan from Harvard Extension's Church Street Lab.
If you are at a distance, you may have a friend or family member that
is serious about photography and might lend you their camera for some
assignments.

In the end, if you are able to delay a camera purchase for even a few
weeks, you may find that you have a better understanding of your own
style of photography and which features you may want in a camera.

I am unable to attend any lectures in person. Can I still submit
assignments and participate?

or

I will be traveling for a week or two during the semester.
Can I still submit assignments and participate?

All aspects of the course will be online such that we hope to match,
as best as possible, the online experience to the in-person one.
In particular:
lectures will be live streamed and available
on-demand afterward, projects and
problem sets can only be submitted online,
and any participatory and collaborative aspects
of the course are designed with distance learning in mind.
In order to complete the course, you will need access to a camera that
meets the requirements of the course (see "What kind of camera
should I buy?", above) and reliable Internet access on a weekly
basis.

If you are traveling, please be sure that you afford yourself enough
time to complete and submit assignments on time.
Please be aware that we cannot provide extensions to assignment due
dates except in cases of emergency.
However, due to the online nature of the course, you may certainly
submit from afar!